Photo: Susan Murray
Four years ago Kohutapu Lodge was humming. It was welcoming international backpackers as they spilled off a big orange Stray Bus every night.
Nadine Toe Toe and her husband Karl were living up to their business motto.
"It's five words, 'change a town through tourism," says Nadine.
Pre-Covid19 they'd won a NZ tourism award for community engagement, they were about to launch a new product, Whirinaki Forest Footprints, and they were half way through building a five-bedroom house so they had more beds.
"It was going that well," she says.
Overnight, they lost everything.
Being a cultural tourism product nearly all their guests were overseas.
"It was a tough time going from the crest of a wave to rock bottom. It took lot of character to get back on our feet.
"We dug deep and got running a 12-week life skills course for rangatahi, 16 to 24 year olds who are not in school, education or training. Get them back on their feet, pop them up on the other end, hopefully going forward in life and doing something wonderful. "
Nadine says it's going really well.
Certainly past attendee Wairere Ripaki is a good role model.
She'd come on the course because she reached a place where she didn't know what she wanted to do, what career to aim for.
School wasn't going well, she was "playing up".
"At the start I was anti-social. Had social anxiety. Didn't talk to anyone, but eventually we came together as one group.
"The big life lessons included motivation, determination and getting to know ourselves."
Wairere says she went with no expectation of knocking off her goals - going back to school and getting level two.
But she did in double quick time.
Now she's heading toward a carpentry apprenticeship next year. She enjoyed working with wood at school so the move seems natural.
"And my dad said it would help out the family a lot because we have a section of land with nothing on it. So I thought get something built for my family, it would be on our land, for my family. Eight of us. Just a big house for all of us."
Nadine Toe Toe couldn't be prouder of stories like these, and says the courses will keep running even when the Stray buses start rolling in again.
Which they will, there are forward bookings already.
